BY SEAN O’CONNELL
“Josh and I don’t get along at all, really. For most of our scenes, I had them put a bag over his head because I can’t stand looking at him.”
So says Kristen Bell of her supposedly handsome “When In Rome” co-star Josh Duhamel. Now, Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie likely would disagree with Bell about Duhamel’s looks – she clearly finds something attractive in the “Transformers” star.
But Bell was merely cracking wise as she promoted the romantic comedy, playfully explaining how chemistry isn’t something actors can put their fingers on while they are filming.
“Honest to God, it’s such a gamble,” she said. “You have no idea. You could get along like best friends (with a co-star) and it could read horrible on camera. Or we could be at each other’s throats and then it could read great.”
Positive reviews given to “Rome” indicate that Bell and Duhamel clicked as a harried museum curator and the sports reporter who falls under her spell. Duhamel, meanwhile, is quick to credit his director, who cut his teeth on a pair of not-very-funny superhero films, “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider.”
“Our director, Mark Steven Johnson, is a genuinely good dude and a very funny man,” said Duhamel. “This movie, more than anything than I have done, made me feel very free to sort of go for (the joke), and if it didn’t work, my co-stars weren’t afraid to tell me.”
“And I think (it helped) having so many genuinely funny people around us,” Bell said. “Everybody had their own ideas. Although it did, at points, seem like we had too many ideas, but that’s not a bad thing.”
Will Arnett, Danny DeVito and Dax Shepard are just a few of those funny colleagues. All three were cast as potential suitors for Bell’s lonely curator. They follow Bell back to New York City when she picks their coins out of a Roman fountain. And while Shepard credits the comedy in the script, he spent most of his time deviating from the screenplay just to make Arnett laugh.
“I just think he’s the funniest guy on the planet,” Shepard said of the “Arrested Development” star. “And so anytime I can get him rolling, I feel like I’ve done my job.”
When asked what makes Arnett chuckle, Shepard explains, “Anything that is the opposite of him. He’s kind of aristocratic and refined, and I’m more of a hillbilly. So […]